ScatterBrain

I’m not a confrontational person. I would often rather let someone win an argument for the sake of not having to argue – I give in easily by nature. Even moreso, I reallly don’t like it when people don’t like me.

This has perhaps been the most difficult of my personal traits to adjust and change in my role as a business owner.

And after 2 years of TalentEgg, I can confidently say that there are people in this city who think really poorly of me. There are individuals who think I’m mean, there are former employees who think I am unfair, there are potential employees, partners, and vendors who think I’m a bad or even immoral business person, and that I’m not very bright, and there are probably even clients who just don’t like me.

Wow. That’s hard for me. And in many cases, perhaps a result of the “business is business” attitude that I adopted about 6 months in to the TalentEgg project.

This attitude stemmed from the fact that when I started this company, I let my nature dictate how I acted completed. I was too nice, I gave in too easily, and in some cases, I was definitely taken advantage of. In expensive ways – both financially and emotionally.

And so at times, I’ve swung the other way as a reaction. I’ve been too harsh, too black and white.

At this point, I’d like to say I’m a bit more balanced. As I go through each important decision here – especially ones that have implications on other people – I try to stage a little battle in my head – “what would lauren do” vs “what would my lawyer tell me to do”. I’ve also installed other checks and balances, such as “what would my girlfriend say”.

All this being said, it’s still not easy, and knowing people think I suck is perhaps one of the hardest necessary parts of being a leader.